A belief in logic and reason as the primary path to knowledge and wisdom was my starting point. With careful thought and applying what I could learn from others, I could live well. I was wrong.

Relying on intelligence and reason to solve problems is appealing. If you have a problem, get some smart people together and solve it. I read Plato’s Republic in high school, and his logical, reason-based society made sense. A few gifted people, prepared for leadership from birth and trained to be rigorously logical, could lead a well-ordered thriving society. Everything fit logically into place, and all benefited. It wasn’t democratic, but it seemed much better than chaos and ignorance. Of course, I imagined I might be one of those philosopher kings.

I learned that reason and conceptual knowledge are necessary but insufficient for learning what I needed to live. There is no substitute for the knowledge gained through experience, often through trial and error. Engaging with the world is necessary for gaining wisdom. There are good reasons for this.

Learning in a Complex and Changing World

Complexity and change are the main reasons for using experiential learning. The simplest interaction with others and the environment involves many factors and relationships. The complexity is often beyond our ability to evaluate conceptually. Charting a course reliably is not possible using conceptual knowledge and reason alone because there are too many factors and interactions to consider. This complexity is the foundation of the law of unintended consequences, which recognizes that often our actions produce results we never intended or wanted.

“No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.” This quote, attributed to a Prussian military strategist, communicates the limits of our ability to anticipate the future when so much is unknown. Plans are helpful but must change as experience educates us. It is sobering to realize the limits of reasoning. It is discouraging how little intelligent and well-educated people know when facing a complicated world.

The Innate Preference for Experience

Humans evolved to learn experientially. Conceptual learning through writing is very recent. Human brains learn better through experience.

Parents teach every child that touching something hot will hurt. Yet invariably, every child must get burned at least once for it to sink in. The richness of experience enhances learning effectiveness compared to simple conceptual learning. Other learning, such as riding a bike, is nearly impossible to learn conceptually. Only getting on the bike and trying to ride brings all the variables of riding together so we can learn. There are many scrapes and bruises of the trial-and-error experience of learning to ride.

Living is like taking on a project we don’t know how to do. Some actions are routine and predictable. We do them repeatedly and get the same result. But much is not routine. We may have principles to guide us, but the precise circumstances are novel. We have to figure it out in real time, partly by making mistakes and then adjusting.

As the old saying goes, “Experience is the best teacher.”

Examples of Trial-and-Error Learning

There is a close relationship between learning from experience and learning by trial and error. In any interaction with people and our world, we often try something and see if it works. If it does, we know to do it again. If not, we try something different.

There are several important examples of how this works in practice. These examples reinforce the idea that experience is a powerful tool for learning.

At the heart of the scientific method is trial-and-error learning. The scientific method starts with a theory or hypothesis about how the world works. It is a conceptual model. But then, they conduct experiments to test the hypothesis. The results either support or reject the hypothesis. Much is learned by success and failure. Science advances through an iterative process of testing and refining theories. Knowledge advances as some theories survive, and are refined, while others are rejected. Many well-reasoned theories developed by knowledgeable, intelligent people fail in this crucial trial-and-error testing process. If reason and logic were sufficient, we would still believe in a flat earth.

The same idea shows up in business. Companies put hard work, research, and money into developing new products. Logic, data, and their best reasoning tell them the new product should succeed. Yet most new products fail. Like the scientific method, businesses hypothesize about what customers want and will pay for. Introducing the product into the marketplace is the experiment that validates or disproves their hypothesis.

Trial and error produced life. The DNA of all forms of life results from millions of experiments over millions of years on how to thrive—or at least how to survive. The uncaring world tested random genetic variations, producing physical and psychological traits in life-and-death experiments. Many failed. The Neanderthals, for example, are no longer around. The traits aiding survival and reproduction remained. We result from the successful experiments.

Perhaps most profoundly, experimental learning advances culture. Throughout human existence, changes occurred in beliefs, values, institutions, practices, etc. Some were intentional and some accidental. The Plague caused a labor shortage, giving peasants more leverage with landlords and producing a cascade of positive social changes. The Greek idea of democracy spread and became a founding principle for the United States. Changes that helped survival persisted. From these changes, we gain collective knowledge of how to live and work together. Though uneven, human progress over millennia provides evidence supporting this concept of learning. We haven’t been able to think our way to progress. We had to learn (and sometimes re-learn) by trial and error.

Bringing Reason and Experiment together

Reason and theoretical learning are necessary to benefit from trial and error and our experiences. The trial-and-error approach does not have to be random. We can learn from others. Conceptual knowledge can increase our odds of success. And reason is necessary to understand what happens when we do something.

Engage

Star Trek’s Captain Picard always commands, “engage” as the Enterprise begins travel. It is an appropriate reminder to gain knowledge and wisdom through experience. To live well, you must act and engage with the world. A person seeking wisdom must be more than a well-read armchair philosopher. Conduct some experiments and learn from them!